No, I'm referring to flt ops. Although ground ops is a complete disaster. For a frame of reference, SW is my fourth airline in 15 years. While this doesn't make me an expert I also do have some industry perspective.
Couple of things about Flight ops. Lets take single engine taxi. Almost their whole existence, they never really had to use it. Captain started both engines. Most airports(MDW,HOU and BWI) they fly out of, their taxi times were pretty short. On top the fact the demos in the back get done pretty quick. Faster than we do for sure. Now fast forward a few decades. 3.50 per gallon Jet A and fuel becomes your largest expense. Fly into delayed airports(LGA,EWR,PHL,BOS,ATL, etc), your average taxi times start to rise, hence management makes it a priority. At Airtran, FO always started the engines, even before single engine taxi. We got a memo and pretty much end of story. And we are smaller, a lot smaller. Easier to get the pilot group to comply. SWA is very large, a lot older airline. Got to retrain everybody which takes a while. Now the hard part of compliance. That's going to take a long time. If they stress it in recurrent and in checkrides, plus the use of FOQA data, they should be able to get a high amount of compliance. You are working for a large airline with 600 airplanes and does almost 18 billion in revenue. layers upon layers of management. Right or wrong, that's what this place is. No different than any other large airline.
Unfortunately, the Onboard Performance Computer (OPC) because of all of the taxiway/runway "incidents" in the past, is programmed to be VERY conservative. This also leads to decreased fuel savings because it doesn't matter if we're landing 16L in DEN and we park WAAAAAY to the south, the TR still has to at least hit the full reverse detent. Idle reverse is not allowed to be used, period.
This may not be a SWA thing but a FAA thing. I think SWA would love to get rid of some of these performance penalties but the FAA may not allow it. Hence why we have to now since we got SOC. Bottom line is that it's between the feds and SWA. Since we are in the middle of an acquisition I doubt the FAA is in the mood to change it. Look at EYW. We had a op spec exemption to dispatch to a dry runway at EYW. They could not. Pretty much EYW became a money loser as soon as SWA put there own metal there. Unfortunate but that is how it goes.
WHY start down early from your TOD when there's no good reason to especially if you have the descent winds programmed (which you should)? I see it all the time. Talk about a lack of use of the automation at this airline.
That's a Flight ops/training issue. Not a line pilot issue. If they don't teach them, they won't use it. Tribal knowledge doesn't count. That's a pure training issue.
It obviously has a lot to do with their current "lack of motivation", but one thing that cannot be said is that the ramp is under staffed. NO WAY IN HELL IS THE RAMP UNDERSTAFFED! I've seen more done with less at other airlines.
SWA has the most unionized work force in the industry. The ramp itself(under the wing) IMO is under staffed. 52 800's are coming this year and next. Close to 100 of them on the property. More bags but yet no extra help and yet they want to turn these airplanes quicker. Ain't gonna happen. Above the wing is a different story. That is ALL do to union contracts and the prevention of stepping on each others jobs. That's going to be a tough one to crack. Especially if they want to cross train jobs. Throw in different unions also. Pretty tough. Good luck. Most companies have shred that style of operation years ago. They had to go through bankruptcy to do it. SWA just announced this morning they made 800 million for the year with a 13% ROIC. Explain that in section 6 negotiations.